Rebels Never Smile

June

June: By myself

Days would pass without a single call from Elvis. And when he does call, it would be in the wee hours of the night. Hearing his sigh on the other line would soothe me. Once he hung up, I would mope around for hours, doing anything but sleeping. Finally I decided that sitting around and watching the phone was not going to do anything. So During the days, I spent them with the girls and I would go home and sleep soundly. It wasn't until later when someone would start seeing me in the night again.

I woke to hear soft tapping on my window. In the pitch black, I made out a familiar figure standing outside. Groggily, is got up and opened the window. The cold air whipped me and sent chills down my spine. " What's up June?" The voice whispered. " Nothing Aaron." I mumbled. " What the heck are you doing in the dead of the night?" " I just came to see what you were up to!" He said. " Shhhh. My parent saw will kill me if they heard you, they're already tired from Elvis' calls..." I stopped my sentence. Because the night was dark, I wasn't sure but I though I saw a fleeting look of sadness etch across his face. He sighed and looked back at me with eager eyes. " I'll stop by tomorrow okay?" He whispered. I didn't get a chance to reply as he ran back towards the lot. Puzzled, I shook my head and jumped back on the bed, drifting away into the darkness.

Just as every morning I woke up to find that my Mother and Father had gone to work. It was a half past 10 so I quickly showered and cleaned the house before I made myself a quick sandwich. I giggled as I thought back to the time when Elvis made our first meal together.

~ " June." Elvis whispers breaking me from my trance. " Huh?" I glanced back at him. He chuckled. " What do you want on your sandwich?" I rolled my eyes and replied " Doesn't really matter." I sat back on his couch, looking at Vernon's newspaper from behind. I tried, and failed, to read the back of his article when Elvis came into the living room with 7 sandwiches, all of which were dripping with peanut butter. I back down in repulse as he set the plate in front of me. " Oh shut up." He muttered looking at my expression. He picked one up and bit it ferociously, moaning like it was the best thing on earth. " Come on June, it has banana and bacon in it." My horror intensified. " Peanut butter and banana sandwich with bacon?" I asked. " Come on try it!" He pushed me. I pushed him back. " Not everyone can have your stomach." He chuckled and looked up at me beneath his lashes, smiling menacingly " That's why it, and everything with it, belongs to you." He said wriggling his eyebrows. " Please kids, wait till I'm in the room." Vernon said startling both of us. Elvis laughed out and whispered loudly " Geez, was he here this whole time?" To which Vernon replied " Yes. I was." And Vernon stalked of to his room. I looked at Elvis and picked up a sandwich, biting it seductively. He stared with wide eyes. " Dang man, I never been so jealous of a damn sandwich before." He said nearly making me choke on my food as I struggled to laugh. ~

The doorbell rang repeatedly as I struggled to swallow the last bite of my sandwich. " Coming!" I yelled at whoever relentlessly tortured my poor doorbell. I opened it harshly to let whoever know that they were being rude as hell. A pair of bright blue eyes smiled back at me. I would've jumped into his arms but he wasn't the man I was looking for. " Hey Aaron." I adjusted my voice so the disappointment could not be heard. " Well what are you doing today?" He asked. Slightly annoyed I replied " Nothing really." And then an idea popped into my head. " Actually, I was gonna go to the arcade with the girls." I lied. He chuckled. " You don't have to lie June." He said with ease. My eyebrows furrowed. " I can tell when you lie." He answered my unspoken question. I sighed. " Don't worry June! I'm not going to do anything." He said walking into my house and sitting back on the couch. Unsure, I reluctantly closed the doors and offered him a drink. " Water please." He replied looking intrigued with a magazine on the table. I came back to see him reading a page about Elvis. His eyebrow was up. " What?" I asked as I set the water in front of him. His voice was slightly tightened, " nothing. It's just that, he has everything he could possibly want right now." I nodded my head. " Right." I let the sarcasm flow. " You don't agree?" His voice brightened. " I don't know... he just doesn't call as much as I want him to. I really miss him." I said honestly. The atmosphere became tense. " Let's go!" He leaped out the couch, slicing the tension. " I want to take you somewhere." He winked. Not waiting for my answer, he pulled me up and skipped outside to wait for me.

We walked a long time towards the railroad tracks. We walked a little further down, into the forest and I was becoming scared with each step. I've never been down here and if I lost him, I would struggle to find a way out. We walked talking about our lives and little things, until we heard distinct music. We broke out of the forest into the clearing. There in the far edge of the clearing was a small shack, on the verge of collapsing. The loud jazz music was coming from inside. As we walked closer, with Aaron's encouraging words, I could see the outline of waves of bodies in the hut. We approached the window, littered with buckets on the ground. Aaron held my gaze and put a finger to his lips. I gulped and nodded. He nods his head in the direction of the window and peaked inside through the window. Nervously, I did the same. Everything going on in the hut, was by far the most explicit or as my parents would say atrocious scenes I'd have every witnessed. Inside, the women were dressed up in their most revealing clothes, with dark lace covering anything unnecessary. The men, were either extremely drunk or extremely psychotic as some fought, watched, danced and moved. But the most shocking thing was the music. It was entirely a different genre of music, blusy with some sort of hip to it. It was wild but it was gentle. Like a rough hand gently caressing your skin. We watched as the people inside moved to the rhythm all their own, as the musicians poured every breathe and every ounce of energy they had into their melodies.

Feeling sleepy I yawned and looked at Aaron. He was still watching, held in a trance. I hated to wake him from it so I sat on one of the buckets and leaned my head against the wall. I was so drained from that walk here, I realized how tired I was as I yawned again and sleepy tears clouded my vision. I yawned again and closed my eyes, promising I'd wake them as soon as Aaron was done.

I came too when it started getting cold. Before my eyes were opened, I felt the earth moving up and down in a steady pattern. Instead of loud music were sounds of muffled footsteps. I slowly opened my eyes, still utterly tired and managed to peak through my lashes. My arms were wrapped around Aaron's neck as he held my legs tightly in a lock. My eyes widened in surprise. " What the heck is going on here?" I gasped. We were no longer in the dark forests of the woods, were we now nearing my house. Aaron chuckled. " hey sleepy beauty." " Why am I on your back?" I quizzed. " I thought it'd be obvious," he shook his head, " You were out cold so I decided it would've been better not to wake you up from... Deep slumber." He said the last part in a deep voice. I laughed at that and sighed into his shoulder. " Uggghhhh." I groaned. " I'm never walking out there again, with or without your back, I'm so tired!" Yeah, I am too. " Noticing that I was still on his back I tried to hop off but his grip was too tight. " Let me hop off you." He shook his head. " no, your still disoriented, I don't want you to walk yet." I'm fine." I insisted. "I won't let you go." He promised, tightening his grip on me. Completely uncomfortable I craned my neck as far as it would go but held on to his shoulders.

As we neared my house, I jumped off his back the second he let go of me. " Goodnight." I spoke icily, trotting away to the warmth of my house. " Wait!" Aaron yelled. I rolled my eyes before I turned around. He stretched his back. " Wow, it's sore." I breathed out. " Sorry." " Don't worry bout it. How was your adventure?" He asked lightly. Picturing a bunch of people moving around in the dark basically wearing nothing... " definitely weird..." his face fell, " But I definitely had a great time tonight." I punched his arm. " Really." His face lit up, lighting up the very space around us. " Awe well.." He faked being modest. I giggled and kissed his cheek goodbye before closing the space between us. Behind the door I heard his footsteps slowly grow softer and I sunk to my knees sighing. Extremely tired, I half dragged myself across the apartment and slept right in the middle of the floor of my room, dreaming that I was asleep wrapped in Elvis' warm arms in his Cadillac.